Croatia were the surprise team of France '98. Spectacular in their quarterfinal win over Germany, they probably came into the semifinal against France with a feeling of nothing to lose. They had already performed way beyond their, and their fans', expectations. Lose and it would have been a fantastic run, win and they would extend their unexpected adventure.
When the France '98 top scorer, and Croatian legend, Davor Suker scored with a sublimely cool finish early in the second half it looked like the fairy-tale run was set to continue. But within a minute Croatia were let down by some shaky defending under pressure from a French defender, Lilian Thuram, who went on to equalize. In the 70th minute, Thuram did it again, forcing a Croatian defender to lose possession and scoring with a finish Suker would have been proud of.
Croatia went on to win the 3rd/4th place match with Suker scoring again, while France had their greatest ever football win a few days later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G32IEc2EQg
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